The U.S. space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station or ISS and linked up with it on Monday after a wing inspection was performed earlier on Sunday.

The astronauts used their ship's 15-metre robotic arm to beam down camera images of the upper edges of the wings, so engineers back on Earth could check for any evidence of launch damage.

Matt Abbott is the Shuttle Flight Director.

"The ascent yesterday was absolutely beautiful, just flawless and it was great to watch on a gorgeous day there in Florida. The launch teams did such a wonderful job preparing the vehicle to fly and the crew's doing great."

After the linkup, the shuttle and station crews will conduct pressure and leak checks to prepare for the opening of the hatches between the two spacecraft.

They will then greet each other to begin nine days of joint operations.

Discovery arrived bearing the huge Japanese Kibo lab and a new pump for the station's broken toilet, which has caused inconvenience for the station residents' life up there.

The crew members aboard the orbiting complex are preparing for the first of their spacewalks, which have to assemble and install Kibo's huge science module.

This is the second of three shuttle flights that will launch components to complete Kibo, which is Japan's primary contribution to the ISS program.